re: Rantings of the Guild Stalker, Week 289

Welcome to the 292nd edition of the Rantings of the Guild Stalker, your one stop spot to get all the juiciest tidbits. But if you hear it here, you probably didn't hear it first-unless you did-in which case I call Shaman Iguana!

Welcome to this week's newsletter! Before we get into all the really wow-like ohh and ahh stuff. Let's start with the important stuff! Welcome to our new-ish (cause like it's been a week or two) guildie Hadouken! Be sure to give them a warm Reciprocity welcome. Secondly, big welcome back to Loefteng (although he has been on his shaman (yay shamans). And I am sure we will have plenty of other welcome backs in our future as today is PRE-PATCH DAY!

That said, I do not know where summer has gone. But, alas it is so. So, with much begrudging excitement (remember I hate change even if it is good and exciting change) pre-patch here we come.

Now, today when servers go live (hopefully with little to no hiccups) we should see all of the class reworks and changes, the stat squish, changes to the pvp system, a guild ui change, communities and so much more! Okay, maybe we should slow down a bit. First things first, Patch Notes are sometimes important things. Whether you prefer the format layout of Blizz themselves or wowhead check out all the specific changes word for word. Another important thing will be the class changes. Remember our weapons are losing their traits and that means a sad sad shaman with no stormkeeper *pouts* BUT thanfully hope remains with the class changes as some of the artifact traits are getting reworked into new class abilities. While some classes are only getting a few changes others are getting some larger changes. I highly recommend looking over guides for your class or classes to help you sort things out Wowhead has compiled a great set of guides that you can find here.

The long awaited Burning of Teldrassil questline will start on July 24th and go over 3 weeks and reward a mount (one alliance and one horde if you do both). And the Battle of Lordaeron event likely to start 1 week before launch.

The only other specific thing I want to point out (cause I could go on for like ever talking about the patch) is that you will now be able to buy specific legendaries and I believe you should be able to obtain waking essences from world quests (see here).

There is of course a lot LOT more so read through some guides, ask questions, talk about stuff help each other out and have fun! Let's see what else you wonderful wonderful people have been up to!

CHow do you get promoted? Guild promotions are based on your join date. In order to claim your rank there are two requirements: 1)You must claim your characters by signing up on the guild website and 2) Have an authenticator attached to your account. For more information, please clickhere.

So since we were three weeks behind on newsletters I voted for three (kinda) guildies of the week this time around. So let me explain each one because I truely want to take the time to extend my deepest heartfelt thank-yous to each of them.

Darkregret is new-ish to our guild. While not brand new, hew only got to raid with us for a little over a month and a half before life got in the way and kept him from raiding with us. He had just gotten geared up, fixed his dps and got a week or so in on Heroic Argus before he couldn't play. And then rather than rejoin on the last 2 days he sat out knowing he didn't have the practice and time in so that the rest of the guild could get their kill in. I know I (and the rest of the team) really admire your commitment to this team.

Cantique, I will never be able to say enough good things about Cantique. She always tries her best even when she feels like she is struggling or flustered but let me tell you what she did this last week during our last few nights of extra raid to get Mr. Argus down. There as a mid-fight emergency and the other raider in the house had to stand up mid-fight (during phase 2) so she jumped out of her chair to command two toons and successfully didn't kill anyone until the other raider came back. Now that is commitment!

All of our patient and loving support system (significant others/friends/family--those who put up with our shit). We know it is enough to have to let us raid 2-4 nights a week regularly and the guild deeply appreciates you allowing your raiders to join us for these extra nights to down Argus. If you took on extra house/family duties thank you! If you put up with our grumpy asses THANK YOU! If you comforted us, listed to us complain--THANK YOU! You all deserve a giant thank you :)

To submit a nomination, send an in-game or website mail to Rhodaria. Be sure to specify who the guildie is you are nominating and why you are nominating them. To view the gallery of past winners go to our Guildie of the Week Page.

Guess your Guildmate

Okay so it clearly wasn't just me who forgot the context of the famous Surdor quote--but it was in fact Surdor who said "It looked like a pinwheel to me!" maybe just maybe you will remember who originally said this one.

"Let's make him wish he WAS wearing socks"

To submit a guess for GYG you can comment on this newsletter on the website or on facebook or send Rhodaria an in-game mail. To view previous weeks' challenges viewthe forum post.

The GCG is one of our main sources of funds for the guild, which is made possible by all of you running guild dungeons and raids. you get one entry for every checkmark you complete, just be sure to send Rhodaria a mail to submit your entry. Learn morehere.

Guild Bank

I don't think the guild bank needs anything in particular right now.

Raid News

I am the happiest of happy to report that Argus is the deadest of dead! he is pushing up daisies, he has ceased to exist. We did it TEAM! Now, it was a wee tad reminiscent of our first ever end of expac boss (Siege btw for those who weren't around back then) where it was the Monday before it went away--but we did it and that is what matters!

Here is the great after pic (although I would have preferred his dead body)

And then we lit ourselves on fire like we promised we would.

And then we went to fly around on the new mount.

One final comment before we get to the new business. I was looking back over all of the raiding files I have from legion to put things into perspective for people. We have had over 72 raiders over the course of legion (the raiding season of which lasted slightly under 2 years). Only about 6-8 of whom have been raiding that entire time. about 15 of those raiders left the guild and 11 of them have raided on and off over the 2 years. We had 19 great raiders last night. I am very confident about our raid team going into the next expansion. The last several weeks (and months honestly) have been a blast (even if they were frustrating in a few places) and I know it will be great in BfA.

The plan for the next few weeks is still a bit up in the air until we see what the changes are like, so stay tuned and once we see I will update the in game calendar. We will probably mostly do fun stuff--we might attempt Argus once more for people who missed the mount.

Okay, now down to the very new pressing business...what MAIN are you going to play in BfA? Now, there is no need to be hasty in making your choice we have until BfA launches (because they you have to level it) but I would like to get a sense of what people are thinking so we make sure we have a good group balance and have tanks/heals and composition covered. Nothing needs to be set in stone yet--anyway just check out my long post about picking a main over here.